Saturday, November 20, 2010

The Troubled Man by Henning Mankell


Nearing sixty, detective Kurt Wallander is reflecting frequently on his life. He decides to make the move from Ystad to a house in the country, not far from where his father lived. He also rejoices in the pregnancy of his only child, Linda and the subsequent birth of his granddaughter. When Linda's boyfriend's father, Hakan von Enke, disappears, Wallander feels that he personally should investigate, even though it's under the jurisdiction of the Stockholm police. Hakan was a retired commander in the Swedish navy and he confided in Wallander his suspicions about Russian submarines in Swedish waters during the Cold War. When Hakan's wife, Louise, goes missing, Wallander is plunged deeper into the lives of the von Enkes and Cold War espionage. The Troubled Man, though, being the last Wallander novel, is concerned mostly with the character of Wallander himself and his relationships with the women he has loved in his life--Linda, Mona, and Baiba. It will be published in March.

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